The map (below) consists of 7 main player nations, corresponding to the 6 players who have expressed an interest in participating in the campaign: Byzantium (Ben), Rum (Jeff), Trebizond (Serge), Outremer (Duncan), Ilkhanate (Tod), Golden Horde (George) and Egypt (Nick). Each is divided into 2 territories, identified by cities.

There are 5 “spare” other nations, which will be used if additional players wish to join in for one or more rounds (and as sources of refuge for the 7 core nations if things are going very badly…): Latin Empire, Kingdom of Cyprus, Armenia, Georgia, and Yemen. Note that these nations are not divided into city territories as I am not currently anticipating that they will be much used, but that can be done later if needed.

The campaign will be played in 3 turns. For each turn, each player rolls a 6-sided die for initiative (ties to be re-rolled as needed, until a full sequence is established). On the first turn, Ilkhanate automatically has the highest initiative. Starting with the highest initiative, players declare attacks. Each attack determines a defender, who now loses his opportunity to attack, and neither member of the pair can be attacked by another nation this turn. Once all players are paired off in this way, each pair fights a 400 point per side battle. Attacker and defender determined this way is carried over into the battle; no battle initiative rolls are required.

Attacks can be made into an adjacent area on the map, or into a port territory (identified by the arrows indicating they can be attacked from the sea), as long as the attacker also has a port territory (therefore only Ilkhanate cannot attack from the sea in turn 1). These attacks can only be made into the territories of participating players, therefore the “spare” nations can only be attacked to or from if they are participating in a given round.

A defender who loses a battle loses the territory he was defending to the successful attacker. A defender who loses both his territories seeks refuge in one of the “spare” nations not in use for the third round, and can attack from or be attacked in that territory in that turn.

Campaign victory points are generated at the end of each turn as follows:• Per victory: 3 points• Per defeat, defender: 2 points• Per defeat, attacker: 1 point• Per territory controlled at the end of each turn: 1 point

Just added another nation to the map, Golden Horde, for George, who wants to play Mongols, too. Makes for a slightly awkward 7 players, but we have various ways to manage that, so we'll see how it goes! If anyone else is interested, let me know!